Ballpoint Pens V.s. Fountain Pens

[hypro999]

don't just support fountain pens because you like the but give an honest opinion on the difference in terms of maintenance, long lasting writing, convenience, flow and so on...

[Namo]

One word : comfort.

[Paddler]

Ballpoint pens will write on things that a fountain pen can't cope with, like plastics and wood. I keep a couple of them for that purpose. However, when writing on paper for more than a few lines, ballpoint pens give me hand cramps; fountain pens do not. Their other characteristics are moot.

[cbaytan]

don't just support fountain pens because you like the but give an honest opinion on the difference in terms of maintenance, long lasting writing, convenience, flow and so on...

 

Buttery smooth writing and, would you please read my signature?

[libran88]

I am new to fountain pen and i would say i prefer fountain pen compared to ballpoint pens.. Perhaps because of the ink flow and the consistency in colour.. Sometimes I need to press ballpoint pen very hard to get the colour i want.. Maybe just me or maybe the ballpoint quality not that good.. And I like to use my rollerball for lengthy writing..

[The Blue Knight]

The best way I have found of describing a fountain pen compared a ball point pen is;

 

"A fountain pen is like the best ever ballpoint pen you've ever found but on life support." (My way of explaining the difference)

 

What I mean by this metaphor is a fountain pen is far more delicate than a ballpoint pen and you have a good chance of ruining it if you were to drop it and so it's life would be over. However with a ballpoint pen would still work fine.

 

Also every day or 2 you have refill the pen, replenishing it's fluids (adding more ink). Ever few weeks for a ball point?

 

However in the context of "best ever pen" a fountain pen produces such a smooth writing experience with so many options e.g. ink colour, nib width, pressure design etc that in comparison to a ball point pen a fountain pen offer's so much more.

Edited October 9, 2013 by top pen

[sargetalon]

Fountain pens provide me a sense of comfort and style which ballpoint pens do not. That said, ballpoint pens are able to write on surfaces that the fountain pen inks just cannot and therefore are useful in that respect. Ballpoints also have less of a maintenance requirement so that is a plus. Finally, a ballpoint in much more easily lent as it can be replaced for pennies on the dollar versus a fountain pen worth many hundreds of dollars. At the end of the day, I'll take a fountain pen but that doesn't mean a ballpoint doesn't have its specific uses.

[WirsPlm]

Different things for different purposes.

 

I love my glitter-ink gel pens and will always have a few around. For receipt signing, nothing beats a Bic. For everything else, FPs are much more comfortable and easier for me to use. Also, more fun.

[Ernst Bitterman]

Ease of writing, consistent visual density, no unbecoming globs, and lifetime companionship.

 

 

Also every day or 2 you have refill the pen, replenishing it's fluids (adding more ink). Ever few weeks for a ball point?

 

 

 

I dispute your ability to put more goop behind the writing head of a ball-point, but if you're going to give it a try, let me know ahead so I can print up some tickets. Reinking an FP is like refueling a car; refilling a BP is like putting in a new engine.

[Bo Bo Olson]

FP's are fun.

BP/Roller balls are boring.

 

Is there a ball point com....does it have 20 members?

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

For me, I use ballpoint pens for sketching. When you write with them, most ballpoints have breaks in the lines that they make, especially when you are writing letters like "8" or "O" They don't do this when I'm sketching with them. Fountain pens don't do this

 

Many good ballpoints don't require much pressure to write, but most fountain pens don't require any at all. This makes for a more comfortable writing experience. I can also use a fountain pen at a lower angle than I can use a ballpoint pen. I can also write for a lot longer with a fountain pen.

 

I still love my glitter-ink gel pens, and I keep a cup of them on my desk. They don't make breaks in the lines like ballpoint pens do, but they run out really quickly though if I use them, and a bottle of ink lasts me a lot longer.

 

Maintenance-wise I don't really do very much to my fountain pens. I refill them when they are empty. The pens and inks I use are fairly maintenance free. Most of my pens haven't been cleaned more than once or twice since I got them and are working the same way that they were when I got them. I don't have to relubricate pistons very often either.

 

Convenience-wise, I like my fountain pens because I know I can just pick up one and I know it will write when I uncap it. Sometimes, ballpoints need to be "started" to get them to start writing. My pens are reliable enough that I know that I won't have ink all over the grip or something odd happening to my pen.

 

Cleanliness-wise, with some ballpoints like BIC Cristals or space pen refills, I get some ink on my fingers and my hands because they deposit blobs of ink that don't really dry, and sometimes you don't know exactly where the blobs are. With fountain pens, I pretty much never get inky fingers, even when I am refilling or cleaning my pen. I enjoy clean fingers pretty much every day.

 

Dillon

Edited October 9, 2013 by Dillo

[GabrielleDuVent]

No hand cramps! No hand cramps!

 

Seriously. Writing a timed essay and you're writing ten pages, college-ruled? Hand cramps become an issue.

 

I've never refilled a ballpoint. Once they die, they'r dead. No phoenix-ing.

[RudyR]

I stop writing when ball points caused me so much pain that it I could not write for any extended time. Not only that but the ink line and ink color were a boring and pathetic sight. I tried all sorts of ball point sizes but they all look anemic. With the introduction of roller balls, things got interesting but still the issue of a ball and writing angle was still there. When I picked up and wrote with a fountain pen at a pen show, it was all over for even wanting anything to do with ball points. Ball points have evolved to be nothing more than landfill. That in itself is revolting enough to garner my contempt.

[ISW_Kaputnik]

Ballpoint advantages:

• Low maintenance.
• Lower initial cost. Lower replacement cost. Often available as free promotional items, or provided by employers for use at work, so you may never actually need to buy one.
• Even excluding freebies, arguably more economical over the long run, although you'll get some disagreement with that.
• In general, longer writing on a single filling than either fountain pens or liquid or gel rollerballs.
• Less fussy about what papers and other surfaces they will write on.
• Water resistance can be more or less taken for granted with standard blue and black inks. Rollerballs are another story.
• Most types of refills available in local stores.

Fountain pen advantages.

• Smoother, more comfortable to write with, particularly if you write for a long time at one sitting.
• Choice of nibs for many different kinds of writing, and different effects, such as line width variation and shading.
• Inks tend to look richer on paper. Not necessarily better than rollerballs.
• Wider variety of inks, going by both colors and properties. Some liquid ink rollerballs will take the same inks, but you don't get the variety of nibs.
• Fountain pens are more technically interesting to me, and more esthetically pleasing.

Those fountain pen qualities are enough for me to prefer fountain pens most of the time. It's useful to have ballpoints available for writing under less than ideal conditions, or for lending to the sort of person who never has a pen of his own, but whom you are willing to help anyway.

[kalali]

Aside from the extra effort to put the ink down, with the exception of the BIC Bold, almost all other BPs are too fine for my taste. The second reason is the variety of the inks available for FPs.

Forgot to add the shading and line variation only possible from using an FP.

Edited October 9, 2013 by kalali

[NHsueh]

In my opinion:

 

Ballpoint: Able to write on any kind of paper, waterproof, but quite uncomfortable due to the pressure required to get the pen to write.

 

Rollerball: Able to write on most surfaces, not waterproof, but very smooth (a good rollerball is probably smoother than the smoothest fountain pen on many papers) and requires no pressure to write.

 

Fountain pen: Only able to write smoothly on good paper, not waterproof, smooth (but not as smooth as a rollerball), and requires no pressure to write. However, a very beautiful instrument, and a delight to use when it works well, unlike a rollerball which is boring. Watching the nib lay down a line of ink is intensely pleasurable, in a way a rollerball can never be.

[mirosc]

There's nothing bad about a ballpoint. They excel in their field, fountain pens in another.

Different tools for different jobs, variety for every personal taste.

 

There's a nice very old video about Hermann Zapf (I guess no need to introduce him here) on youtube where he explains calligraphy and how to do it right - it's very instructive, because he makes clear that techniques are just preliminary and that calligraphy and the aesthetics of a good writing are far more than that.

The interesting part is that he talks and shows mostly dip pens (also chalk, pencil,...), skips fountain pens almost completly, but praises the benefits of ballpoints as a calligraphic tool.

My point: if you know how and when to use them, there's no better or worse between fountain pens and ballpoints.

[GClef]

+1 what mirosc said.

[Vendome]

For business and personal correspondence, a fountain pen can't be beat.

[GClef]

No hand cramps! No hand cramps!

 

 

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